GREAT Weekend!

Well, for Memorial Day Weekend, I went up to my parents' place in NH, as I think I had previously mentioned. It was a gorgeous weekend- sunny, warm, and all that good stuff. It was me, sister, parents, and sometimes grandma- and I managed to get in a beautiful bike ride on Sunday... it is extremely hilly up there, and those 15 pounds I managed to lose since last summer were NOT missed at all! So long, losers! :)
It was sooooo nice to just relax, joke around with the family, and eat a LOT of my mom's homemade scones and muffins. She cooks much more healthfully than, say, a donut shoppe, but they still tasted so gooooood. I would like to credit all that carbo loading for my new PR at the Good Times run! Tonight, I ran the 5k in 27 1/2 minutes! Egad! AND, because tonight was the 'sandbagger's special', they did some funky math, subtracting the fastest woman's time from my fastest time, subtracted that difference from tonight's result... and I came in 3rd overall for the women! Oh my goodness, I have never come in 3rd in an athletic competition ever! I got a PR medal, a winner's pint glass, AND a coupon for a free beer! What a night!
I must say, I jumped around like a 5 year old on Christmas. And, Charlene, the woman I've made friends with over the past few weeks, also won a medal and set a PR. We were very happy, drinking our free drinks. Yippeeeeeee!
I will end tonight's post in a good mood. PLUS, only 15 more school days left! AND, I have yummy leftovers for dinner! Now, if only some extra handsome, successful, tall, funny, interesting guy would just randomly knock on my door... and not mind that I am currently a sweaty mess with beer breath... (actually, that second part would probably be a plus, eh?) Here's hoping! If it was ever going to happen, I swear, tonight would be the night!

NOT a good week.

So, the river is still well above normal levels, but the flooded 5k route is now not flooded any more. However, in several sections, the riverwalk is covered in a 5 inch layer of sand/ gloopy mud. I will be curious to see how they deal with that on Tuesday night- will they have us run in the mud? (Ewwww!) Will they reroute the course? Will they cancel it again? Who can say? I do not have a Magic 8 Ball so can only guess. My guess is that they will reroute the course. You heard it here first.

So, on Thursday, I was given a letter stating that I do not have my job next year. This is most lousy. I would like to still have a job. The short version of the story is that a position is getting cut elsewhere, and that the person who currently holds that position has seniority over me, and was involuntarily placed into my job. What loveliness. The personnel director told me that she feels certain that I will get a job elsewhere in the system for next year, but she has no facts to back that up quite yet. Blaugh. I am attempting to maintain an optimistic outlook, but it is not the easiest.

In a veiled effort to take me out to feel better without actually saying that's what it was for, my coworkers suggested that we go out for a drink Friday after work. We went to a swell martini bar in my neighborhood. Our waitress arrived with a couple of nice, pink martinis, and her hands were shaking really badly. We were understanding, but gigglingly commenting that we were almost WEARING those drinks. Suddenly, there was a crash behind the bar, and our waitress had gone down to the floor and was having a seizure. It was awful. I really felt for her- she probably knew it was coming, but didn't want to screw up her new job (I hadn't seen her there before). She was probably just hoping it wouldn't actually happen. Someone called 911, and the ambulance came to take care of her. As a postscript, I walked by yesterday and saw that she was back at work, so she is okay. That is good, at least. It left me feeling pretty upset, though. I do hate to see someone suffering like that.

Over the past few weeks, I have been experiencing coffee cravings, after successfully kicking a daily caffeine habit back in August. So, this weekend, I decided to detox from caffeine. Man, I was sooooo tired both on Saturday and Sunday! Like, 3 hour naps tired. Whoa. I also got the killer headache today, but am hoping it's all out of my system for tomorrow. Back to herbal tea for me!

I will see what I can do about not having any wretched posts like this again. I will try to focus on happier things. Ooh, ooh. I have something. My apartment had disintegrated to such a disarray as to forbid people to come into my apartment- it was REALLY bad. But today, I found the inspiration to do a bit of cleaning, and although it doesn't exactly belong in the pages of a magazine, I could definitely let someone in without wanting to hide under a rock. Or possibly a large dust bunny. I even cleaned out the humidifier to be packed away for the summer, and wiped down my yoga mat... which suffers quite a lot due to being taken to hot yoga five times a week...

I'm gonna go see what I can do about getting a good night's sleep. ZZZZZ.

The Next Day

Well, I have good news- the river is dropping. I guess from a photojournalistic point of view, this could potentially be seen as bad news, but let's face it: Lowell being flooded is bad. I dressed better today, in more 'weather appropriate' clothes, so was out for longer. I took a few comparison photos, and ventured out further. I must confess that at a lot of points, I just didn't have the guts and/ or the heart to take the pictures I wanted to. There were sandbagged roadblocks guarded by either the police or the National Guard, and they looked cranky, so I didn't have the guts to take their pictures. On the North side of the river in the neighborhood known as Pawtucketville, I saw a lot of flooded out homes, but I just felt way too voyeuristic to stop and take photos. I mean, those are people's homes, inside which all of their belongings are destroyed. The last thing that they (or their neighbors) need to see is some snotty person taking a picture of their misfortune. To give you an idea of the water levels, I saw a back yard with a swingset in it, and the swings were well underwater. The main road running on the north side of the river upstream from the dam was completely flooded out, and the side streets running northward were closed to traffic. I was on a more northward road running parallel to the river, and could look down the side streets: they were flooded.


Before I show the pics from today, here are a couple from yesterday afternoon. I got a couple of quick shots of the beginning of the 5k course, where you'll see that the sign featured in a couple of yesterday's shots is slightly more submerged- the water level rose a bit over the day yesterday:
And yes, yesterday was a nice day to be a duck: (more ducks later)
And now, onto today's photos. The water level has dropped. Notice the sign from above, and the 'muck level':
I then checked out "Renaissance On The River" again. The parking lot looks a bit better:
And in the back of the building, you can see both the handrails again:
The above photo was taken from the Aiken Street Bridge. The walkway you can see (okay, it IS submerged in water) goes under the bridge and pops out here- again, the muck level shows how much the water has receded:

Next, a new shot of the 'whatever it is station'. The University Ave Bridge is in the background:
Next, I zipped over to the School Street Bridge for a look at the dam. The news crews were out in force:
And here is a collection of photos of the dam itself, in all of its brown-watered glory. Lots more people were out today... probably because it wasn't raining!
This last one shows a paint line on the brick building with the number 102 on it. Is it 102 feet from the bottom of the falls? I'd probably guess not, so I guess it's 102 inches? I'd entertain guesses, both of the educated and of the uneducated variety.
At this point in my journey, I pedaled toward the area on Pawtucket Boulevard that was closed down. I had to take the back way, and passed all of those side streets. It was really quite something, to look down the streets and see street after street just disappear into the waterline. On the other end of the flooded section of the Boulevard was the Rourke Bridge. A small section of road was open so that you could get to the bridge, but the road was closed continuing on upstream.
Nice day for a duck, part 2:
The view from the Rourke Bridge didn't really show anything unusually different or exciting, but the pedestrian 'tunnel' merits photographing:
Very prison-y. down at the end is a dude in head to toe red and black Gore Tex. I don't know what he was expecting to encounter, but whatever it was, he was prepared. He was also wearing those 'glacier sunglasses' with the leather shields on the side to protect him from glacier glare. Good thing, with all that sun we've been having around here.
Some other basic info: They have not yet turned off the water, although all day yesterday various rumors were flying around. Downtown is expected to be safe, since they shut the gate that closes off the water supply to the downtown canals. There is more rain on the way. School was canceled again today. It is not sunny. Lately, my milk has been spoiling faster than it should. Oh, wait... that has nothing to do with the topic at hand, does it?
I'm guessing that the river is going to continue to recede, although it will do so more slowly than we'd hope BECAUSE IT'S STILL RAINING! Blaugh. I also hope that they will NOT turn off the water, although even if they do, I can always shower at yoga, and my tub is full of 'toilet flushing water'.
To be honest, not much else is going on around here. I did manage to finally read The DaVinci Code last night, so now I can go see the movie and have a good comparison to work from. Well, I'll go see it if it gets good reviews... otherwise, forget it!
Okay, over and out for now...

The Lord Told Noah to Build Him an Arky Arky

Folks, it's raining in New England. My town decided to close school because of the flooding! So, what's a school social worker to do? Well, I do get to go and get a shot later today (fun and excitement, oh my!), but for the moment, it's not raining, so I'm going to take my trusty fixed gear bicycle around and go look at the river to see what's what. Maybe I'll even find a flooded street or two.

(Three Hours Later, post bike ride, shower, and breakfast at the Club Diner...)

Well, of course, as soon as I left the house, it started to rain. I doggedly pressed on, on my bicycle, and got some amazing views of the river. I'm sure, as usual, the photos don't do the view justice.

Photo 1: My fixed gear bicycle. She and I first checked out the canals, which frequently are empty. Today, they looked a little different.
Photo 2: This canal is frequently empty, with a lovely mud bottom and many garbagy items in view. Today, this small opening would not even be enough for a canoer to get under, even ducking down.
Photo 3: I guess our 5k will be cancelled tomorrow night... this is usually a winding path down to the riverside walkway. The outside railing is gone completely, and part of the inside railing is missing as well. This shows the beginning of the winding path, and part of the railing. Photo 4: A closeup of the sign we usually run by... it is taller than my head, I think... I would have gone swimming for my loyal viewers, but didn't want to die before getting home to post the pictures.
Pictures 5 & 6: Closeups of the railing alongside the walkway by the river. One side is totally gone, and one side is missing a chunk. As this was my first stop for photos, I was very freaked out and took a lot of pictures. I mean, I run on that walkway all the time!!!
Picture 7: From the Bridge Street Bridge. This is a picture of the backside of Boott Mills. I could see through that window, and construction is happening in there. Thank goodness they are way behind schedule, otherwise that would be some sad owner's shiny new condo. I'm assuming that the spiky gate is a good 8-10 feet tall in real life, and I believe there's a walkway somewhere down there, that is usually very safely out of the way of the river.Picture 8: I was horrified at this one. This is a picture of the parking lot at Renaissance at the River. I didn't get my camera out fast enough, but there was a man being rescued by a big pickup truck. I'm assuming they had to evacuate the building, as there is no way out, and I hear that the river is going to rise another 8 feet by tonight. You can see the ramp to the left of the car that leads to the main entryway... ain't no one getting in unless they get a LITTLE wet...
Picture 9: The other side of the building. I am heartsick for all of the people who just moved into this newly renovated building. It is not in a normal 'flood zone', so I wonder if they had insurance appropriate to cover the damage. By my estimation, the water level is right around the floor level of the first floor, and is completely covering the basement. Again, you can see the railing for the riverside boardwalk. We also run along this for the race- it is a continuation of the handrail you saw before. Picture 10: The last picture was taken from the Aiken Street Bridge. Here is the pathway that runs below the bridge, from Lelacheur Park and behind the Renaissance on the River. This is where the waterstop for the race usually is!Picture 11: The path was above water to the left of the last picture. But man oh man, the water was crazy upstream! I got this one behind the UMass Lowell dorms. The picture does not give an accurate idea of the height of the swells. I do not think a good swimmer or kayaker would enjoy this, although at least all of the rocks are well below the surface...Picture 12: Just upstream, I got a shot of this, whatever it is... In the background is the University Ave. Bridge.
Picture 13: A picture from atop University Ave. Bridge, of the 'whatever it is' station.
Picture 14: General water shot from same bridge.
Picture 15: Last but not least, the Pawtucket Falls Dam. Can you see the dam? No? Funny, because usually you can see the 20-30 foot drop, rickety boards poking out and all. Today, all you can see is a scary swell of water indicating where the dam is. Creepy, creepy, creepy. Seriously, take a moment to consider what you're looking at- that bump of water is the only indication that there is a 20-30 foot drop underneath. That roiling water is THAT HIGH. No wonder they are worrying that things are going to get worse before they get better.
At this point in my tour, I had been in the rain for an hour. Because it had not been raining before I left, I was not well dressed and was getting cold. I could see far up the river that the 'Boulevard' was also completely covered. I might nip back down to one or two of the spots for an update later this afternoon, for comparison. They are saying that downtown (where yours truly lives) might actually get flooded, and that they are considering shutting off Lowell's water supply. We'll see what happens.

I'm glad I did my little trek this morning. I will post updates if I get any!

Events of the Weekend (so far)

Well, last night was extremely unexciting but was just what I wanted... after work, I went out to the "Knickerbocker Club", which is a local, private/ guests bar. It was selected by the principal at our school, who is a born and raised local and whose brothers and nephews evidently drink there. We were definitely given the hairy eyeball, and I managed to use yoga as an excuse to leave early. They would not let us sit in the dining area and directed us toward the 'dart room', which had some cigarette ash - covered tables for our lounging enjoyment. They would not let us start a drink tab and basically ignored us. It didn't bother me any, since I knew I was leaving early, which I did. Ha ha. The additional downside to this place was that because it's considered a private club, smoking is allowed, so I got to sweat out cigarette smoke during yoga. Extra gross.

Today, there were three bead shows within reasonable driving distance of home, but I went with the International Gem and Jewelry Show and the Intergalactic Bead Show (or, unfortunately, IBS for short), and managed to get some good stuff which is evidently not very photogenic so there will be no picture. This trip was followed by a nap on the bed with no sheets because I was going to do laundry, not take a nap... but these things happen sometimes. I then strolled over to the bead store to visit Lizzie, (you know, instead of doing laundry) and then we went to eat Indian food (again, no laundry). So now, I'm sitting here writing the events of the day (rather than doing laundry) and am going to have to put the dirty sheets back onto the bed before sleep tonight, because I'm going out again to watch a play! My sister's ex boyfriend is going to be in it, so that ought to be interesting, for sure.

Oh. The most horrible thing ever happened to me last night while I was sleeping! Okay, I'm sure I could come up with worse things, but it didn't seem so at the time. I woke up because I got a horrible charlie horse in my right calf muscle! My leg was all bent and twisted and quivering and it hurt sooooo bad. I was asleep and in pain and trying to figure out what to do about it and my leg would not straighten and it was shaking because it hurt so bad and after a bit, I thought to myself, "Well, I should just go back to sleep with it like this because it's not going to get any better..." Yeah right! So, I finally got my leg to straighten and worked on the calf for a while.... it was horrible. Then I was scared to go back to sleep, you know, in case it happened again, but it didn't. It hurt a couple of times today, and hurts in general... ouchie! I guess I didn't drink enough water after yoga last night. Gotta work on that, I guess.

Tomorrow is Mother's day. I will get to see Mom, Dad, Grandma, sister Liz, and Liz's boyfriend Markos. Liz is whom I want to see the most because she is going to move far away and I like her a lot. We are sisters, but we are also friends. It is swell. (insert hearts and flowers here)

Okay, so I convinced Lizzie (confusing, too many Lizzes- Liz = sister, Lizzie = bead store owner) to go out for Indian food with me this evening. There's a good place right near my house (and therefore right near the bead store), so we had a lovely meal. She and I have similar senses of humor... for instance, we were both dressed like slobs, and I whispered to her, "Lizzie, I am not wearing a B-R-A!" (I spelled it out) and then we both laughed ridiculously. Another good example is that I took some of the beads from her wall that were white and dagger shaped and put them up to my mouth, and proceeded to act like a dinosaur. There were other people around, but somehow, we were the only two laughing so hard we were crying. Honestly, it WAS funny! (I wish I had a picture of THAT, for sure...) So anyway, after dinner, we had our leftovers boxed up to go, and the dude brought it out in one big bag. I took mine out, which he noticed, and he went and got me another bag.... but check out the bag he brought for me:



Now, you might be confused. You might think, "Surely there must be POPCORN in that bag!!!" but no, you would be sorely mistaken. Do NOT take this bag with you to the movies, because instead of popcorn, you will find a lovely box full of lentils and rice. Not popcorny at all. This was especially funny in light of the fact that the original leftovers bag was a nice, brown bag with handles and everything. The gentleman who was helping us took his time folding down the top of the popcorn bag- just so- and the whole time, Lizzie and I were trying to stay all serious. It didn't work that well.

Okay, now to talk about knitting. I believe that the Gibson Girl is dry, but now I need the time to put together the pieces. I hate finishing pieces, sewing seams and the like... but I always end up getting around to it. Miss Clappy is now about 3 feet long and is chugging away. I really enjoy doing a project where I get to purposely drop an entire row of stitches and pull them out, and for that, I recommend this pattern to all. I heart Miss Clappy. I might also add that I have named very few of my knitted items. If any knitted items DESERVE a name, the below might qualify:

OR NOT. AUUUUUGH! Blogger has told me now six times that my images uploaded successfully. Well, unless I am missing something, they have not! I guess I'll have to try another time. Stupid Blogger. Grrrr.

So, one last thing. It has been raining a lot lately and my dad sent me a picture of a hill near their driveway. Please note the handmade moose that my brother, sister and I made for my parents' anniversary a couple of years ago. It is very cool.



So, it appears that it is raining quite a lot up there, and that the moose is surviving the storm. That is good, because he fell down once in a big snowstorm. Poor moose. Interesting how I had no problem with the moose pic, but that the other pics wouldn't upload. So it goes...

(My mom's gonna love this title)

I've got the CLAP!

Those of you who know what I'm talking about, already know that I'm referring to the Clapotis shawl/ scarf, not the mysterious STD... I had been toying with the idea of using my Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn to make a scarf sized Clapotis, but didn't want to blog about it until it looked like it would work and that I'd have enough yarn to make it worthwhile to knit. For some reason, I didn't feel like blogging about a failure... I'm still stinging from the Argyle Vest situation. (by the way, if you ever run into a 6'5" woman who looks to be about a size 12- you know, skinny for her height- let me know. I have a vest for her!)
So, anyway, here is a photo of my progress:



Yes, it is a very bright and cheery colorway. It's about 1 1/2 feet long so far. I only started last night, but had a 3 hour long social work staff meeting today, which is prime knitting time, as far as I'm concerned. There is one other woman who knits, but our styles are pretty different. She appears to focus strictly on baby items, made out of shiny, acrilic, fuzzy, pastel yarn. It even LOOKS squeaky! Ewwww. It is making my tongue shiver just thinking about it. I know... why my tongue? I have no idea. But, I'm willing to bet you know exactly what I'm talking about, now, don't you!!!

Even though it's May 11, I saw my breath this morning when walking to my car. And with weather.com stating that we will have clouds and rain for the forseeable future (which lasts 10 days, according to weather.com), I just might get to use little Miss Clappy before summer comes!

And, in case you were wondering, the Gibson Girl is still drying. With all of this damp weather, I'm not sure the yarn is certain as to whether it should dry, or whether it should stay kinda damp... for the next 500 years or so. As long as it dries before it develops that 'moldy' smell... that happens to my gym clothes if I hang them for too long- I always throw exercise clothes in the sink with some Woolite right away- who wants smelly gym clothes in with the regular laundry? Not this gal. Onion skin on the kitchen floor? No problem. Empty ripped envelopes lying in the general proximity of the garbage can? I won't bat an eyelash. Wearing clean clothes out of the nicely folded pile of laundry (rather than having to actually put my clothes away)? Cool, dude. But smelly gym clothes? Unacceptable! Plus, I have been working out a lot and don't have a ton of gym clothes, so I either have to keep them washed... or put on smelly gym clothes... which I have done in a pinch, and let me tell you... nothing is quite as gross... except for perhaps having to put on SOMEONE ELSE'S sweaty gym clothes! Which I can honestly say I have never done. You KNOW I'd tell you if I had! And that is one of the things you like about me, right???

Okay, this post has clearly reached a saturation level of knitting updates, and personal information about my gross habits. I should probably cut my losses at this point. Tomorrow is another day.

Finally blocking!

I have made clear how I feel about blocking: I do not like it, Sam I am. I like it less than green eggs and ham.... which I would probably like just fine, I'm sure! So, I am currently soaking little miss Gibson Girl Pullover in the sink and will be blocking her momentarily. Once I have her all pinned out, I shall take a picture and place it below, like so:

It looks a little weird in this picture... the lace is more see through than it is in real life. I look forward to finishing so I can get someone to take a pic of me in it. :)

Now, we wait for it to dry. (and wait, and wait, and wait...)

Now that I can't knit on this, I potentially could start something else. However, I don't really have some yarn on deck with a project attached to it. And my 'brain wheels' aren't really spinning so fast tonight...

Runnin' in the Rain

Well, as I have previously mentioned, I have been participating in a weekly 5k race on Tuesday nights. Tonight was the sixth one, and I set another personal best, at 28:11! Yahooooo! It is also the fifth of six Tuesday nights that has been cold and rainy. Brrrrrr. So it goes.

In knitting news, I have now finished the sleeves and the front and back for the Gibson Girl Pullover, but I hate blocking (all those stupid pins... plus, I always have to block on the floor, which involves squatting and kneeling on a concrete floor) and am at an "I don't wanna" stage. Meh.

I had a fantastically great weekend. Friday evening, I went to yoga (again- I have become addicted and I like it!), and went to bed when I felt like it. Saturday, I got up and went to a glass bead show, which was cool. It's like an art show, but with all beads... because handmade lampwork beads are so pretty! I got back to Lowell and went out to eat with my friends Chris and Christine, who have a new baby named Max, who was born on my birthday. He is cute:

And, in that picture, he is wearing a cute, tiny little crocheted hat made by yours truly. After lunch with the new happy family, I walked around checkin' out some cool old historical buildings around Lowell, that were open for "Doors Open Lowell". Later in the evening, it was over to the bead store for a two year anniversary party.

On Sunday, I managed to drag my buns out of bed early enough to go for a 45 minute 'jog' before meeting up with Liz (the best sister EVER) for breakfast. Jog is in quotes because I was going so slowly that I was sure I was going backwards! Liz and I met up at the Rosebud Cafe in Davis Square, where the wait staff is grouchy and sassy. Our waitress referred to my breakfast meat as 'snausages', which made us immediately decide to tip her extra well. We took some time planning out our trip to Eastern Europe this summer, and Liz was getting mildly irritated because I kept mispronouncing the name of a town wrong to make it sound funny. It's just one of the things I do, I guess.
After breakfast and coffee, I went to a couple of the artist studio buildings in Somerville as part of Somerville Open Studios. I got an offer from a jewelry maker to teach me how to work with metal (silver, gold, etc) for a lot cheaper than what you'd pay at an official place that gives classes. Maybe I'll tuck that under my cap for this summer!
THEN, I went to yoga. My new favorite thing. FINALLY, I ended the night at Cece's house where we knit and watched t.v. after a yummy baked chicken dinner. Deeeelicious.
Yes, that concluded my fantastic weekend. The weather was gorgeous, and I loved everything I got to do. It is not often that I have a weekend quite like that, but I do enjoy them when they come along.
And now, for sleep. Good night!

Things That Irritate Me

1. Students that are purposefully trying to irritate me. Exhibit A: We shall call him "Jerkface". He was sent to my office because he was refusing to do his classwork. This is the student who, after returning from court one day (for charges you'll be able to guess about after the rest of this story), sat in class, was asked to do work, said to the teacher, 'Fuck you, bitch!', then picked up a chair/desk combo and threw it across the room. Funny- he won't speak English, but managed to get that particular sentence out just fine! So, flash back forward to today. I decided to play the 'ignore the jerkface and see if he'll just be quiet' game. He caught on quickly to my wily ways, and started tapping his foot as loudly as it is possible to tap without actually stomping. This went on for about 20 minutes. Then, wily as he is, he realized that this was not going to get a reaction out of me, so he started ripping up his work. I quietly got up and took it from him and sat back down. Then, he started punching and banging on his desk as loudly as he could, and THIS didn't stop for about a half hour. At this point, I was ready to launch him out of the window, but I continued to ignore him. Finally, he gave up and put his head down and fell fast asleep. After a while, I faked a loud sneeze, but he didn't even move. I called the principal up and she took a photo for his file. Anyway, that is thing #1 for today that irritates me. There is only an Exhibit A for this- the other examples from today are so ridiculous, I'd rather not relive them... until returning to work tomorrow, that is...

2. Guys who think that if you speak nicely to them, that you must desire intercourse immediately or something. (In other words, the 'no wonder you're still single' guys!) Exhibit A: A nameless 25 year old young man from a country where they breed fast runners who, in the span of a week, has tried to buy me a beer, (I declined) insisted that I buy HIM a beer, (again, I declined), asked me how we were going to get to know each other better if I wouldn't talk to him, (I told him he was lucky I ever talked to him at all) and then tried to get me to drive him somewhere. (Yes, folks, I DEFINITELY declined!) I made the mistake of speaking in a friendly tone to this fellow a couple of weeks ago, and am now paying the price. I met him at the weekly 5k race that I do, and I tried to duck out of the celebratory festivities post race, and he followed me out, angry that I had left without saying goodbye. GOOD GRIEF!!! Exhibit B: A dude who evidently used to date one of my Team EnVision teammates saw me on Match.com and wrote to me. Silly me; I wrote back. Within the span of about 10 minutes, he had emailed me about eight times, stating that I was a very sexy dancer, (I am!) that I must have been VERY drunk at the party he met me at (I actually was not- I drove to that party and do NOT drink and drive), and that he likes tall women. (Well, DUH! EVERYONE likes tall women!) It is evidently dangerous to talk to human males these days. Very dangerous indeed. Guys like these are why I am single. Congratulations to all of you gals out there who snapped up a good one while they were still available!

3. Laundry. Enough said.

There. I think a list of three is a list of a nice length. I'll leave it at that for today. Now, I am going to muster up the energy to knit on that second sleeve to the Gibson Girl Pullover. Really I am.

Bad Blogger. BAD!

I have not posted for a number of days. Here is what's been going on:

1. Knitting. On a break from anything that resembles knitting progress on the Gibson Girl Pullover.

2. Beading. I did a super fun jewelry party at Cece's house on Friday night- there were several guests and lots of beads and snacks. What could be better! Sadly, it was followed by a craft show on Saturday that was an incredible waste of my time. I used an extremely gross metaphor that involved infested dead animal parts, but I will not repeat it here... my mom reads this sometimes! (See, mom? I AM capable of filtering my comments!)

3. Keeping up with the jogging- I am super happy I'm participating in the Good Times fun runs... it makes me feel like I MUST run in between races, or suffer the consequences... and today was incredibly beautiful out! I keep wondering if running will get fun and easy again like it used to be... the verdict is still out... I'm getting faster, but haven't hit 'the zone' yet. I passed a couple of people I knew, and jumped around and waved hello at them. It was at the beginning of the run, when I had a bunch of pep... I did have a couple of weird moments during my run today where it felt like my view was from the perspective of a camera strapped to my forehead, rather than through my eyes... like, if you've ever watched the show "Fear Factor" ... they'll put cameras on the contestant's head when they're doing stunts, and you can see from their point of view... it was really weird, I assure you . I guess the good thing was that it acted like an interesting distraction for a while!

4. What I have been doing instead of blogging: Bikram Yoga. It is a 'hot room' style of yoga, where you do the same 26 poses each class, in the same order. I had been feeling some old hip problems flaring up recently, and figured that it was time to do some serious strengthening and stretching. Every day I can, I plan to go and get sweaty. I am horrible at the balancing poses- super duper wobbly. I am wondering if I'll ever get any better, or if I'll eternally flail about, distracting other yogamates and feeling unbalance-y!

What's funny, is that it turns out that a woman who lives on my floor also goes to the same yoga studio. I knew she looked familiar, but then when the instructor called her by name, I knew it was her! I introduced myself to her- she didn't remember me from the one interaction we've had... she knocked on my door several months ago to apologize for some drunken friends who had evidently been zooming up and down my hall in a shopping cart- NO IDEA how I slept through THAT one! She was probably too embarrassed to remember what I looked like, and I had been wondering if she remembered me or not, since I have laid eyes on her a few more times since then, and she had totally blown me off. One time, she and I were both waiting for the elevator, and I said hi, and she totally ignored me and then instead of taking the elevator, she ran off. Weird. Well, now that I've introduced myself, she's all like, 'Let's carpool to yoga and go out for a drink!' So, either she is weird and fake, or is shy and had a couple of flaky days. I'll go with #2 until I get evidence otherwise. I'm good like that.

And still, no pictures. So it goes. But if I were to post pictures, they would be of my Gibson Girl progress (the front and back up to the neck, awaiting joining and then neck knitting; one finished sleeve, and one partially finished sleeve). It was a gorgeous day out today, so I was also thinking I'd love to take some pics around town and take some photos of some of the spots I like a lot. Bridges, old buildings, the river, and a various assortment of what have you...

My Laziest Self EVER!

Well, April vacation has now come and gone, and I do believe I managed to only check ONE thing off my humongous 'vacation to do list'. Only ONE. I went and got my passport photos taken. And that is it. Was there spring cleaning? Nope. Was there any cleaning of any kind? Well, I did do my laundry once, and I did run the dishwasher once or twice. I also managed to bathe most days. Did I work on getting up a business website? Nope. Did I pay bills? Hahahaha, do not be silly with me. There were so many other things on the list that I just did NOT DO. However, I enjoyed every darned minute of sitting around flabbily and feeling like a glob of silly putty. I did go running. I did go for a bike ride. I even went to Bikram yoga... hot hot hot, baby!

And... I did some knitting. I am now done with the front, back, and one sleeve of the Gibson Girl Pullover... which still has not been captured on camera... BECAUSE I AM TOO LAZY!

I think I am enjoying this lazy thing a little too much. In a few months, my apartment will look like one of those creepy pack rats lives here... the dishes at the bottom of the pile in the sink will have started biodegrading, there will be piles of paper waist high everywhere, with a path from the bed to the bathroom, from the sofa to the computer... and I might get a parrot or something. It will say ominous things like, 'Careful of that tilting pile of documents' or, 'why clean dishes when you can wait until the food crusts over it so hard that you can eat off of it again' or, 'at least you're not a weird lady with eleven cats'...

Then again, I might just start ticking those things off of my list any minute now. Annnnny minnnnute nowwwww........

Resistance was futile.

So, I broke down and bought some yarn yesterday afternoon. I am (naturally) a subscriber to Interweave Knits, and have marked some of my favorite 'to do' patterns with little sticky flags. The Summer 2004 magazine had a pattern called the 'Gibson Girl Pullover', which is a fitted, long sleeve sweater with an allover lace pattern. The pattern is not like other lace I've done before, with the 'fancy stitches' on the right side and straight knitting or purling on the wrong side... there is 'fanciness' to be done on both sides, which keeps it very interesting. I picked a dark blue/green color in Classic Elite's yarn 'Provence', which I believe I have used before and liked.

I had a swatching fiasco last night due to partial tiredness... I didn't notice at first that the gauge instructions asked that you find the number of stitches over SIX inches rather than the usual FOUR. That, paired with my loosey goosey knitting, caused me to do about 6 swatch attempts before finally hitting it right. Then, this morning, I had to redo the FIRST ROW three times (three's the charm) before getting it right. Luckily, I got over whatever mental block I was having and was cruising along today. I am feeling too lazy to do pictures right now, and still don't know how to make words become highlighted and do the link-y thing (Cece? Since you're the 'expert', how about some help?)... so it's all just words today. How extremely boring. Total dullsville. ZZZZZ. But, at least it's a prelude to something interesting to come, right? :)

In other news, last night was week 3 of the Tuesday night 5k. And, I ran it in 28 minutes, 57 seconds, which was my fastest time so far on that course! Yippeeee! They give you a medal each time you set a personal course record, so I got to run up and jump up and down like a geek... no one else did... they all walked up and acted cool. NOT ME. And, I might add, I got a LOT of cheers for that silly behavior, which is just what I like. I am hoping I'll get another medal or two here and there... both because it's fun to be recognized, but even more that it is fun to be fast! I did have a couple of things work out for me in my favor... because I'm not working this week, I could eat well before the race so I didn't have a loaded down belly, and it was nice and cool out, which I like, and finally, one of the kids from my school just happened to see me running, and he was on rollerblades and rolled along with me for a while. It took my mind off things, and acted like a pace car or something. I offered him five bucks for either a piggyback or a loaner of the rollerblades... he declined graciously.

Well, back to the knitting... I am naturally a woman possessed!

Excitement in Downtown Lowell

So, I was craving some hot coffee and a focaccia bagel from "Olive That and More" this morning, so I wandered through the alleyway behind my building to the other side of the block... the street and the parking garage were all blocked off with police barrier tape. There were a lot of people standing around watching, and I quickly found out that there was a 'mysterious package' underneath a park bench. The dude with the big, green puffy bomb suit was on hand, walking over to the package like an astronaut on the moon. I stood around watching for a little while, and then my belly said, 'You know what would be better than standing around? Eating a bagel and drinking some coffee!" I obeyed. So then, I was back home, eating said breakfast, and suddenly I heard a man's voice shouting, "Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole!" AND THEN??? A BIG BOOOOOOM! I kid you not. It was very exciting. AND, I was glad I had gone back home. Sure, it might have been exciting to actually see, but I liked being nice and safe at home rather than in the line of fire. I'm assuming it happened in a controlled manner, since I didn't hear rubble raining down afterwards or anything. They'll probably have something about it on the news tonight.
And people say that Lowell is boring. That shows what THEY know!!!

SUCCESS!

Beading Marathon Monday, AKA 50 FO day, was a success. I managed to make 32 pairs of earrings, 9 bracelets and 9 necklaces. I have managed to take a pic of my work table, (scary messy!) and all of the items I made today. I hate that the pictures don't show how nice some of the beads look, but my setup is not professional. So it goes. I also developed a blister on the pinky of my 'plier hand' from all of the wire bending and such. What a day.

Messy beading table: I find that everything mashed together helps me see combinations I wouldn't think of otherwise!

Here is the shot of all FO's from today:


And, shots of the four quadrants of the FO array:

The above pic shows some earrings made with cool river stones, which are really cool.
This one shows a few necklaces and earrings made with handmade lampwork beads from Grace Beads.
This one has some cool silver foil lined glass beads. Very summery.
Yes, the ear thread earrings helped bump up those FO numbers!

Well, this might not be a feat I attempt to accomplish very often, but it was certainly a productive day.

The day of 50 FO's?

Well, today is day 4 of a 10 day hiatus from work. I don't feel like I've checked very many things off of the 'to do' list, but so it goes. This morning consisted of sleeping late (for me), getting up, munching on some cereal, watching Maury Povitch's top 10 awesomest paternity test guests (HI-Larious!), showering, and taking a brief walk outside (no, the salon is NOT open today, yes, I DID remember to plop my Netflix movies in the mailbox, and YUM for coconut hazelnut iced coffee!) While flip-flopping home from the coffee place, it hit me: today could be the day of 50 finished objects! I felt a wave of self doubt: could i really do that? Maybe I should make it only 20. But I've done THAT before (earrings are fast!)... so, in honor of the Boston Marathoners, I am going to have a marathon of my own. I am going to dust off my bead table, and see what I can see. Speaking of the bead table, I should probably show you a pic of the disaster that I fondly call my work station. I'll get right on that. In addition to the bead table, I also have several workshop type organizers with little drawers- you can either be a sucker and buy the pretty purple organizers at a craft store, or you can go into the hardware section of whatever store is to your liking, and get the 'let's separate the nails from the screws' organizer. Sure, it's not purple, but whatever. Okay, enough time off task. I will check back in later. Possibly with pictures. It is now 11:12 AM. Let the "Day of 50 FO's" commence!

Please stand by... we are experiencing technical difficulties...

Well Blogger is being a jerkass punk and is not allowing me to upload pictures... so I guess I'll try again tomorrow... stay tuned for the Easter update, one day late!

Easter Stash Busting!

So, a couple of years ago, I bought a large quantity of lace weight yarn from Knit Picks, to knit a very complicated entrelac shawl that I was simply drooling over. I had originally started it in a different yarn, that was just so mohairy that it got all tangly and was untinkable in the case of an occasional error. (What can I say, I get distracted sometimes!) At the last minute, I bailed and made the shawl below, which is I think called "Cherry Blossom" from some long ago Interweave Knits magazine. Sorry, I do not have the energy to look up which one right at the moment. Here it is in all of its glory:

Here is a pic of the edging:


And, here is a pic of the center:


It has been worn a total of one time, to my grandfather's wake. I honestly have not found another occasion to wear it. One odd thing about the construction of the shawl is that you start with the outside and work in... and even with blocking, it would never quite lie flat. Not a problem when wearing it, fortunately... After knitting it, I had almost three skeins of the yarn left, so I started "Eva's Scarf" from the book, Scarf Style. Sure, I was already a little tired of the yarn, but my yarn funds have been quite dry ever since buying my own home... Needless to say, I put the project deep down far away after a while... I kept making mistakes, and was so tired of the yarn! Plus, you start with the outside scalloped edge and continuously decrease, so at the beginning, it was extremely tedious. Every time I made a mistake, I would just want to scream! A couple of days ago, I pulled it back out and decided that this was the time to FINISH. And I did! True, I spent almost the entire weekend on the darned thing, to the detriment of anything else I could have done... like leaving the house... Here she is, blocking away... sorry for the grody background of mismached towels...


And, a closeup of the edging...


Today was Easter. I went out to breakfast with Laurie and Tarsha, and it was really nice, relaxing and yummy. I do like me a good breakfast! Well, my darlings, it is officially Mr. Bed Time. Sweet dreams! (Hopefully not of that yarn... have I mentioned that I have over 1 1/2 skeins of that blasted stuff left? Anyone interested in it? I'm willing to talk...)

V-A-C-A-TION!

Okay, folks, today is the first day of a 10 day April vacation. I know that a lot of people think that teachers and other school employees are 'lucky'. However, please remember the post below where our kids lit a brush fire during school hours... and remember that I am the ONLY social worker at an alternative school. Over the past week, there have been two girl fights, several almost girl fights, three cell phones stolen, (and then confiscated by the principal, re-stolen out of her office and then sold to another student) two cases of assault against the principal, uncountable cases of 'shut the F up', 'get out of my F ing face you ugly F ing bitch' (to which I replied, "I might be a bitch, but don't you DARE call me ugly!"), numerous kids stomping out of class when all the teacher asked them to do was sit and do their work, kids throwing desks (and pencils, tennis balls, books and whatever else is handy), spitting, and a generous smattering of general mayhem. And who gets to deal with all of these unpleasant situations? Myself and the principal. When things get too ridiculous for the teachers, we step right on in. I am pooped. If teachers and school employees did not get ample vacations, trust me- there would be no one left to teach.

Okay, I'm done with that rant. 10 days off. Wheeee! I woke up right at 7 this morning. (ever noticed it's much harder to get up on time on a work day, but on a day off, you pop right awake? HATE that!) I did some laundry, lounged around a little (and did some bead crochet), then went for a run. It's getting warmer out, and now I remember that I tend to get overheated when it's warm out. Hmm.

In crafty news, I did try to do the stash diving thing the other night, but nothing sparked my creativity. For now, I am continuing on the bead crochet. No current pics. Over the vaca, I'm assuming I'll make a whole bunch of jewelry and will post some pictures then.

Ugly buns; stash diving.

Here are the EXTREMELY ugly yet DEVASTATINGLY DELICIOUS Chinese buns I made yesterday. The dough is hideous looking, but tasted puffy and great just like in Chinese Dim Sum restaurants. The filling is ground chicken, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, white truffle oil, and other stuff I forget. The dough involved kneading and rising and the whole shebang.

Now that I have finished the Odessa hat, I again find myself without a knitting project. I am going to go stash diving again and see what I can see. Or, I could stop feeling overwhelmed by the giant number of beads I have and just start making new jewelry. Now, that would be smart! But diving it shall be for now.

Today was a weirdly quiet day at work where I basically felt like a high paid paperweight. Funny how I'm tired after a day like that... just as tired as if there was a lot of action. Hmm.

Okay, off to view the stash.

Odessa hat; Onion Soup.

Well, the Odessa hat turned out just the way I hoped it had- the right size, plenty of beads and plenty of yarn! Wheeee!
I am currently making a five onion soup. My eyes have been watering for about 2 hours now! It's tastin' time... I'll be right back... **10 minutes elapsing** Oh. My. Goodness. It was like French onion soup but BETTER. It involved red onion, yellow onion, leeks, scallion, shallots, scallops, my homemade chicken stock, and seasonings. The scallops were rolled in coriander powder and steamed over curry water. I am a happy girl- full of onions, with a nice, new, soft, beaded hat! Now, I'm off to Lush Beads to do some bead crochet and to eat a brownie, evidently, that Liz is saving for me!